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Kim Hyon Hui Holidays in Japan

Thu, 07/22/2010 - 13:01 — Shawn

For the life of me, I cannot wrap my head around why Kim Hyon Hui is in Japan. She blows up KAL flight 858 in 1987, killing all aboard, is arrested, sentenced to death, pardoned, marries one of her bodyguards, writes a book about her days as a spy, and now leads a presumably comfortable but secluded life in South Korea. But because she met some of the Japanese abductees, Japan has seen fit to let her into the country despite her crimes where she has been kicking back at Yukio's summer pad in Karuizawa and is slated to take a helicopter tour of Mt. Fuji today. What the hell?

Unless she has a photographic memory or has extensively traveled to North Korea in recent years, Kim hasn't been a source of information for a very long time. Anything she knows about the abductees is over 20 years old now. She may have some comforting words to say to the Iizukas or Yokotas but that's about it. Sure enough, Shigeru Yokota, father of Megumi, said as much:

Kim had nothing to offer that he hasn't already heard. Moreover, she only met Megumi once. But that hasn't stopped Prime Minister Naoto Kan from saying that he hopes Kim's visit will help resolve the abductee issue. Really? If this is Japan's idea of a diplomatic gesture, then its efforts to bring some sort of closure to the abductee issue are truly dead in the water. Let's have bread and circuses instead. After watching the coverage on TV, the one thing that sticks in my mind is this: Why is Japan pallin' around with a terrorist?

*I can't believe I quoted Sarah Palin. I feel dirty, but this visit by Kim doesn't make any sense to me.

Thank you for the compliment. I used to get quite a bit of support from right wing Nova stooges in NTU, but I must admit, I did not expect to get the same here. In NTU, I was loved, admired, and appreciated, and it is nice to know, the same sentiment exists in here.

I really don't understand why this women is not still in prison let alone getting the star treatment in Japan. She even had a helicopter ride around Tokyo which seemed more of a sightseeing flight despite what the Government said.

She's been out of the loop for years and has absolutely nothing new to offer.

Nothing bothers me more than a Liberal mouthpiece. While I am not "pro-Sarah", we need people like her to keep the lefties in check. If you haven't noticed, Rudd got booted in Aussie-land for a reason...Another left-winger has been kicked out of England, replaced by a staunch Conservative (I am not Conservative; centrist). Tides changing. Too many broken promises and political rhetoric.

"Another left-winger has been kicked out of England, replaced by a staunch Conservative"

Wouldn't quite say that. All the UK parties are ultra-left wing these days. Conservatives are fractionally further towards the right than Labour but there's not much difference. Cameron pretended to be further to the right to get the votes but it's only going be more of the same shit going forward.

Junken Master: At the end of the day, all the excuses in the world can't change the fact that Cameron, a Conservative, is the PM. Australian changed, anyone? Once ultra-left Netherlands is now ultra-right....Obama's poll numbers are in the tank (something to do with the economy still not fixed and other broken promises)........

The way the world works: swings left and right....Just now it is swinging back to the right.

Isn't it obvious? The people she helped kill are meaningless. We have a wonderful propaganda mouthpiece now. She can talk about how she used to be a communist but regrets her misguided thinking and now realizes what a wonderful thing capitalism is, thus proving that not only Kim Jong Il. but also Hugo Chavez, trade unions, labor parties, even Obama are misguided.

Yes, this kind of thing is pretty sick. It's like if one of the Manson murderers was released and they went on 'The View' and said 'Oh man those were such hippy trippy days, weren't they? I really am sorry, but you know, you were there too right. We were all crazy then, huh?'

This Korean lady is not the only plane bomber to get a new life. There's the Lockerbie bomber (if he ever really did it), and there's that guy Possiles Carriles, in the States: A lucky break for a sick pawn in the puppet master's game is one thing, but lets not turn any of these people into media darlings, please.

Nah, first spend some time in the Aussie outback...definite example of why Australians will never dominate anything. Then have them sign up for a "career" (as GEOS NA would say) at GEOS as a teacher/ entertainer/ monkey......Better yet, have them slime their way into a manager position....share a desk with your interns, dirty little secretary/ homestay coordinator/ accounts OL/ slave...

I remember once upon a time not so long ago a certain group of people around the world were laughing and cheering when a great and powerful nation was attacked...now those people can't stop whining and bitching about that nation's resolve. Shows you who got the last laugh afterall.

Exactly. How many Japanese children did the Americans incinerate in those atrocities? When will the War Crimes Tribunal convene? Thousands of children, playing innocently in the playground, wearing their little caps, next second, obliterated, cremation ceremony not necessary, since already done. They burned thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands in a nuclear furnace, with the blink of an eye.

1. If the Japanese did not want a war (i.e. payback, losing, etc.), then why did they start one by murdering over 2,000 Americans at Pearl Harbor for no damn reason? You start a fire, suffer the consequences.

2. The Japanese, like the Germans and Americans, were all racing to develop the nuclear bomb, obviously to use it to win the war. War = each side trying to make the "bigger bomb" to win. The Americans won the race, that's all. (No one really understood the real devastating impact of an n-bomb at the time...)

3. A prominent Japanese scholar (name eludes me right now) concluded that by using the nuclear bomb, the Americans saved even more lives than if they had to invade Japan. The Japanese were ordered to fight to the death if America attacked (see Iwo Jima) and an attack on the Japanese mainland would have obliterated the country, both physically and culturally. All scholarly estimates place the two countries' estimated death toll much higher than the nuclear bombing. In fact, the U.S. decided not to bomb Tokyo, even though so many in the U.S. wanted payback for Pearl Harbor (and maybe rightfully so), for fear it would destroy an old culture and never recover. The n-bomb might have been devastating, but it took less lives and ended the suffering around Asia almost immediately. Hence why the U.S. also helped Japan after war and now both countries are close allies (read: no more war).

4. The Japanese love to play the victim card, and so many Japanophiles love to fall into that trap. They want to distract attention away from what was really happening...Raping China via Nanjing and the thousands of innocent civilians massacred there by the Japanese Imperial army. Or what they did to the Korean people, especially the woman. Have you ever heard of "comfort woman"? Seen any rape pictures lately? Burnings? You wonder why there is still so much animosity in Asia towards the Japanese? This all happened before the U.S. was forced into WWII.

5. How many innocent civilians were incinerated in Munich and Berlin in the great firebombing raids by the British in WWII? They died horrible deaths just so the British could put fear in the Germans and eliminate factories. Oh, guess it is okay if they are British bombing Germans. Not okay if Americans doing the same thing to the Japanese who, again, started the whole thing in the beginning.

6. The British, and most the rest of the world, would be speaking German (or Japanese) right now if it wasn't for American money and bombs.

7. The American nuclear bombs, while not nice, ended all the atrocities being committed in Asia by the Japanese and war with Japan immediately. I think that is a good thing. The only reason they are mad and play the victim (including playing you) is because their "superior race" lost to the "inferior" one. Japan, under the emperor, had a god complex. They saw Americans as intellectually deprived (sound familiar). In the end they learned differently (read Yamamoto's diaries for an intelligent Japan view of the war from the man who actually launched the Pearl Harbor attack). The Americans won the bomb race (technological superiority), used it, and won. They can never get over that. Case closed.

Time to get over your petty anti-Americanism and just grow up. Ignorance is not an excuse for hatred or plain stupidity.

Wow, what a speech. Think you are forgetting about American atrocities in Vietnam and Cambodia and the recent escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan though aren't you? All in the cause of ending the suffering of the many? Don't make me laugh.

The British bombed civilians, so it's AOK for the Yanks to do it too? Yee Hah. Sorry Mr Intelligent. targeting of civilians is a CRIME at which Americans (like the desposts of many other countries) excel in par excellance.

Atrocities in Vietnam? What are you talking about?! The North Vietnamese/ Chinese and their torture camps? Summary executions in China? Millions slaughtered in Africa while the U.N. sat by and did nothing...Taliban cutting the heads off aid workers on tv? Shame in Communist countries and all the citizen Stalin ordered to their deaths? Come on, their MUCH worse atrocities in this world. Your anti-American bent is really infatuating for you, isn't it?

I love when you lost one argument you jump to another...Well not this, so how about this? Classic.

Give it up. You are living in the past. Your words are not going to change anything (obviously from history). I am not American, but I do know one thing: if you screw with the U.S., as we have seen time again in WWII, Iraq, etc,, you are going to get punished. End of story. Sad part is the rest of the "perfect, smart world" can't seem to grasp that. Like I said, only the U.S. is laughing after 9/11. Payback is a bitch, isn't it.

Oh I see. So Americans committed no atrocities in Vietnam, right? Is that what you are saying? Oh so the lack of action by the UN in Africa had nothing to do with Bill Clinton, is that what you are saying? UN sanctioning of the illegal invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with George Bush, right? No, you are not saying that although you are certainly trying to avoid it with your rhetoric. What you are saying is: they do it worse, so if we do it it's OK becase we are the good guys. We are spreading democracy. Oh yeah. That is your 'iintelligent 'argument. Please fuck off to your regular sites and do your thing there. You are just not worth paying attention to.

You can keep whining and complaining about Americans, but cant you see you are a broken record and nothing will change. I know it is frustrating for you, as your annoying posts, but at the end of the day you are talking about Americans but Americans are not talking about you. Kind of a one-sided conversation, dont you think? Nothing

I am not American, but no wonder America leads the world (like it or not). The rest of the world is just too damn incompetent and whine like babies. If "the whole world" cant stop the U,S. or actually go after brutal communist and Islamic leaders, then America will do it...And you will keep whining and bitching and nothing will change. All talk, not action. Exactly why Great Britain and the rest of Europe seeded power to the Americans after WWII...something to do with bombing each other to death...so civilzed...And Asia, after 5,000, because a partner of the U.S.

Keep whining and crying and you will see nothing actually change. I spent some time in Canada earlier this year, and then same thing was happening with the liberals of the country. Couldnt stop making excuses why they lost two elections after running the country for years...Every damn teacher I ran into wined and bitched like I would give a damn....their party:s poll numbers plummeting with the Canadian public. No they are on the verge of becoming the least popular ...And what do they do...whine? and bitch and make excuses. Enjoy the free fall into obscurity.

..........in a split second, the kiddies looked up in the sky, and saw a silver ball dropping from the heavens, and then.............then they burned, and burned, and burned.............thousands and thousands and thousand and thousand and thousands and thousand and thousands of them..........they burned, they burned, and they burned

I respect your website. Its provided plenty of great and helpful information and helped me loads.
I cant help feeling that you've got a load of enemies on this site (cant imagine who?) who are taking your posts off subject and just trying to start flame wars on unrelated subjects to your posts such as Celta (that was a bore) and now America and Palin.

I found all that talk about CELTA very irrelevant too, MIA. I almost gave up posting in here entirely, at that point, and actually, seriously thought about not posting anywhere at all. But the quality of this site was proven, when you Shawn, put an end to the CELTA talk. I can't thank you enough. I too, will continue to read.

I got the impression he was fed up with off-topic posts, yet he lets stupid posts on this and other threads pass. I don't get it. If it were me, the Sarah Palin stuff would have gone in the sack straight off. If these things get nipped in the bud early, they won't balloon out of control later.

As with the above comment, the only reason posts are being deleted is because certain comments about CELTA are irrelevant in a thread about a North Korean terrorist. It's really that simple. Why have I allowed two recent posts about CELTA to stay? One was an obvious joke and the other actually had a point.

I think if you lobby hard enough, Shawn just might let you be a care-taker moderator / censor on this site, but I think, if that is your desire, you need to change your tone a little. Some respect please.

Now, linking Sarah Palin to Kim Hyon Hui. Well, you may scream irrelevance all you like, but some would argue, having Sarah Palin having a shot for a seat in the White House would be akin to letting Kim Hyon Hui run for the Prime Minister’s Office in Japan. Sarah may not be a terrorist, or associated with terrorists, but her credentials and policies (well, shall we say former policies) may well be deemed terrifying by some, hence the link perhaps.

However, putting all that aside, Japan is sometimes a place that is unfathomable. I think perhaps this Kim Hyon Hui comment, put in, for people to read and comment on as they feel fit, without being told by “anonymous” what they can and cannot post about, was included simply to demonstrate that very point.

Take a deep, deep breath, and calm down. This debate has run its course. The poster was merely expressing the opinion that the Sarah Palin comments were stupid and irrelevant, and should have been binned.

Some people really have an inferiority complex over Sarah Palin. Chill out, relax, take deep breaths, and maybe a little Prozac...I know she makes you feel a little weak in the knees and have uncontrollable fits of yapping about Sarah-this and Sarah-that......You will be okay. It is called confidence, and some day you will have it.

So Al Gore was cleared of the porn / molestation / little kiddie issue. Wonder how much $ he had to spend this time.

Who is Sarah? What are you on about? You might be posting on the wrong thread. This thread is about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atrocities, and whether or not Modern America, underneath the veil of being self-declared freedom fighters, can in fact be considered terrorists, just like Kim Hyon Hui has been branded as being such, but none the less, is an esteemed guest on holidays in Japan.

Oh, I was looking for the Pearl Harbor, the rape of Nanjing, Korean "comfort woman". or the brutal American and British POW torture atrocities that the Japanese were involved in....Must be the wrong thread.

P.S. As an independent, I never understood why liberals get all in a tizzy, huffing and puffing, over Sarah. Slow down, people. Unless she makes you feel a little inferior, then that is another issue altogether. Get back to talking about Japan.

They are probably paying her huge amounts of money to come to Japan and help stir up the 'anti-North Korea' feelings. It's a minor government-subsidized industry here, and one that keeps their American masters happy too. I would bet for every 1 billion dollars lost on Iran sanctions, the US has agreed to lower the dollar by 1 yen. It's pathetic to see a country with the economy the size it is having no foreign policy and about as many US military as Iraq.

Charles the petty anti-American is on pushing his left-wing nonsense. The world should be , given. That is not "American" as it. So sad that anything you feel the U.S. does you have . Smacks of a great inferiority complex. No wonder the U.S., even with tighter security visa rules than most countries in the world, is still the most applied to country for immigration. Hurts when your people leave, doesn't it? Then again, why would anyone want to go a country where its citizens can't stop talking about the U.S., good or bad? ;-)

P.S. I am not in the U.S., so please do not jump the gun and stereotype my comments. I am just an educated and less insecure observer.

Charles, please give up your political crap. Obviously your crying hasn't changed anything in the world. Blah-blah-blah....It amounts to nothing...You have no solutions, just complaints. Get out of your bubble, mature a little, and just plain face reality.

When the U.S. HAS a foreign policy, you are the type to complain that they are "meddling in others affairs." When they are perceived not to have a policy, you complain again. And their foreign policy doesn't have to agree with everything you believe or the solutions you feel are correct. Grow up, some people disagree with you (and Iran and North Korea) It is called a different opinion...Get used to it. That is a truly liberal, open-minded world.